'Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrel - Book List update' blog discussion 27 August 2010 at 11:58AM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 17 replies 3.1K views

Former_MSE_Lee

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrel - Book List update" Blog.

Please click reply to discuss below.

ScarletBea

I love big books. I love historical fiction. But this was the single book in my entire life that I haven't finished reading, because I thought life's too short to waste time with awful books.
For me.

lilias

My experience was the opposite of Martin's. I started with great enthusiasm and carried the book around with me so that I could carry on reading whenever I had some spare moments. However towards the end of the novel I started to lose interest and one day I put it down at the end of a chapter and have never picked it up since. In fact I'd forgotten about it until now.

persian_star

Me too ScarletBea. I enjoy historical fiction, and fantasy fiction is my absolute favourite (though I'll try anything really - Eng Lit degree saw to that!) but this book was dark and dank and depressing. Maybe it was because I tried to read it while on holiday in Portugal a couple of years ago and the bright sunshine outside my head was so at odds with what was going on inside so it just magnified the gloominess. I kept expecting to get gripped but never quite was - maybe if I'd got a little bit further (I managed two thirds) it would have got me But there is also a fair dollop of war and fighting in there which is my biggest turn off when reaching for a book.

Oh - I never finished Dickens' Hard Times either. But with a title (and content) like that, maybe it was fitting

Winky,_The_House_Elf

At least we know what he was reading in the loo now!

reddwarf1999

have you ever tried any Terry Pratchett books?

minerva_windsong

I quite liked it. Agree with Martin that it doesn't get going until Strange turns up - I remember thinking, "Oh, 800 more pages of this!", and then actually getting really into it and being utterly gripped until the end of the middle, and then starting to find in hard going again with Strange in Italy and the tower and all that. Although I must say that, whilst I appreciate the messages of the bits with the fairy king, I didn't really like them all that much and found they distracted from the bits I actually cared about.

Seakay

If you like a mixture of fact and fiction in a really well written historical novel then try "Temeraire" by Naomi Novik, the first in a series of books set in an alternative reality where the British are fighting the French, led by Bonaparte, but dragons exist and are used in a sort of flying corps!

lilias

Seakay wrote: »

If you like a mixture of fact and fiction in a really well written historical novel then try "Temeraire" by Naomi Novik, the first in a series of books set in an alternative reality where the British are fighting the French, led by Bonaparte, but dragons exist and are used in a sort of flying corps!

I love the Temeraire novels! Hornblower with dragons

Clowance

Magic normalised in a historical setting: Hmmmm - try the Takes of Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, in my opinion one of the greatest fantasy novel writers ever.
Alvin grows up in America in early 19th century and the stories are interwoven with actual historical events and personages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Alvin_Maker

Haven't read the book under discussion but sounds interesting.

moorhen_2

ScarletBea wrote: »

I love big books. I love historical fiction. But this was the single book in my entire life that I haven't finished reading, because I thought life's too short to waste time with awful books.
For me.

Agreed, I've only given up on a few books ever without finishing them, but I reached page 360 and decided reluctantly that life's too short. If it was a person, I'd call them "nice but dull", and guiltily avoid spending time with them.